This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Ontario doctors performing unnecessary cardiac tests, study finds

The province now has the evidence it needs to prove doctors are ordering too many diagnostic cardiac tests with a new study that suggests millions could be saved annually.

The study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences found 630,000 outpatient echocardiograms — “echos” — were done in 2009, up from 345,000 in 2001. That represents a 5.5-per-cent annual increase when the growing and aging population is taken into account.

During the same period, there was a 10.6-per-cent annual increase in repeat echos — two such tests ordered for one patient. Sometimes double tests are done for legitimate clinical reasons. Other times it could be because an ER doctor doesn’t have access to the first test. Or because the first test was poor quality, most likely done by a non-cardiologist with insufficient training.

The increase in testing has occurred while the incidence of heart disease has remained stable.

The testing cost $130 million in 2009 and the province targeted the procedure for savings in last year’s contentious negotiations with the Ontario Medical Association.

Article Continued Below

It backed off plans to cut self-referral fees for diagnostic tests such as echos in half. Doctors bill OHIP for these fees when they deem the tests necessary and do it themselves, a conflict of interest, according to critics.

The province and doctors agreed to find $100 million in savings by, for example, reducing unnecessary tests.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com